Why Your Gambling Affiliate Program Sucks

Here I’m going to talk a little bit about our “gaming partners” and why they’ve really sucked lately. This is kind of a spin off of articles you’ve probably read such as “why your link exchange emails suck”. For the sake of this article I’m going to refer to us as the webmasters and the gaming programs as “partners”.

Your Email Approach Sucks Big Time

The very first thing our potential partners need to fix is their approach in getting our attention through emails. There is a reason webmasters put privacy blocks on their site, it’s to not be bothered unless it’s very important. Emailing us with a cut and paste offer is NOT going to get you anywhere. In fact it’s more likely damaging the company you work for.

When I see an email come in through a privacy protected email via whois I won’t even open it but simply read the snippet and then usually instantly junk it, feeling a bit pissed as well. Websites have contact emails for a reason, and it’s not usually for business to business proposals.

Look at Our Site, Not Our Email

If you insist on emailing a potential gambling affiliate website, take the time to look over the site before emailing. Get to know what the sites about before shooting off an email. I tend to get about a handful of emails a week from gambling sites wanting me to promote their product in which the site has absolutely no connection.

Example: I have a poker site that deals with bad beat jackpots that is in need of new partners. The email I received was the standard copy and paste mass email stating, “your site looks very interesting and we should be working together.” First off, the gambling site sending the email didn’t even have a bad beat progressive jackpot, but in fact I already have an account with them via the same email address simply from a different site. On top of that I already work with an affiliate manager.

That leads me to the second suggestion; surely poker sites can do some due diligence and have some way of finding out if they are sending out emails to their sponsors that already have an account. In the rare instance that a cut and paste “query” from an operator does get read by us webmasters, for god sakes make sure it’s not being sent from someone absolutely clueless about their program. Again, that leads me to another point.

So the potential partner has managed to avoid the spam filter, not get instant deleted, and somehow catches our eye for some reason. When I follow up on the email it’s not going to be about something specific. If we wanted to promote their program we simply would be already, unless they have something actually compelling that we’ve missed (a non cut-and paste email). As in this case I asked if Hollywood Poker (Ongame) was planning on implementing a bad beat jackpot because after looking at their website and other Ongame poker programs, no such progressives were being offered. Here comes the wonderful follow up email to my request and they all generally go the same. “I’m not sure at the moment but we are offering players a $600 bonus (standard) and think you could do really well promoting us.” WTF, why even compose an email like this when you have no idea or actual value in creating an actual business proposal. It’s equivalent to me sending an affiliate manager an email promising to bring them tons of traffic, give me $500 CPA, not naming my site, and then following up with some nonamepokerwebsite.com with a brilliant review portal that has no potential in less than 3 years.

The Mass Follow Up Requests

Ok, so now that they’ve sent you one email many times I’ll politely say I’m simply not interested. Generally I just delete the email because they didn’t take the time to write a legitimate email in the first place. Right now I have in my email box at least 5 follow-up requests from some site called CasinoLuck asking if I’ve had a chance to read the original email. Even these follow up emails are cut and pasted and can tell are automated somehow. Talk about a good way to never want to do business with someone.

Hire Some Legitimate Representatives

We’re all prone to mistakes, and I’ve hired a couple people that may not know exactly what they are doing to a full extent. But, hiring people to mass request affiliates to promote your product is very harmful to your program in the long run.

Some Advice For Gambling Sites

Hire GOOD affiliate managers. Many of them are out there and in need of work especially with current circumstances. They are worth their weight in gold. Not only do they have very good contacts but they already know the gaming business in and out. I’ll never forget when I had to explain an affiliate manager I had what a “hybrid deal” was. Instead of spending $100k on a few people to waste webmasters time, put that money to good use and hire someone enthusiast about the business, responsive, and knows what they are talking about.

Some of the best managers out there don’t even get in touch with their partners. When we need help we’ll send an email out, the only thing we want in return is a speedy response and one that is informative. Proper casino, sports, and poker managers will go above and beyond and give you information that simply they know from being on the operator side of things for so many years and in the end will help the AM, the online sports betting site, and the affiliate.

Feel free to leave your pet peeves in the comments below, I’m sure there will be many! We’re not here to bash gambling sites but to give future employees a little bit of what we expect and don’t expect.

4 Responses to Why Your Gambling Affiliate Program Sucks

Usually insta-delete them and do not spend much time talking to AMs unless I need something… they will suck up all your time otherwise. I do blacklist programs who send too many mails, Lucky Ace a great example.

I remember one series of mails from Poker Listings about their link exchanges which went beyond just annoying and was actually creepy… do not remember the guys (presumably pen) name now, really wierd “i know you have been ignoring me…” kind of stuff.

Mind you – in a related topic had a really quite professional link exchange request grab my interest a year or 2 ago, swapped a couple of mails, only for the outcome to be a requested exchange between my big 5 year old established portal and a then *brand new* BBJ themed site – obviously totally ignored all the follow ups and marked him as spam, funny old world

It really is tiring, I often get begging emails from programs I’m already signed up at! Seo providers seem to have the same tactic, as do link builders.

What I would like to see is an affiliate manager who genuinely spots something that could be done to better intergrate their program with your site, rather than just demanding more players and asking you to push boring promotions.